Drilling rig numbers hit in a new record in the US as oil search spreads.

Bloomberg: “Rigs targeting oil in the U.S. surged to a record as drillers ventured outside the nation’s biggest basins to search for crude in developing plays such as the South-Central Oklahoma Oil Province, known as SCOOP.”“Oil rigs jumped by 15 to 1,588 this week, even as the counts in some of the most established basins, including the Permian of Texas and New Mexico, were either unchanged or down, data posted on Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI)’s website show. It was the most since Baker Hughes separated the oil and gas rig counts in 1987. Rigs targeting crude outside the major plays jumped by 19 to a record 399, the Houston-based field services company said. The count in Oklahoma rose to the highest level in almost six years.
Drillers are seeking new oil plays as hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling help them pull energy deposits out of shale formations across the U.S. The total U.S. rig count has gained by 151 this year as exploration has boomed, raising domestic crude production last month to the highest level in more than a quarter-century.
….U.S. oil production climbed 10,000 barrels a day, or 0.1 percent, in the week ended Aug. 1 to 8.45 million, Energy Information Administration data show. Output rose last month to the highest level since 1986.
….Rig counts also rose in California, Texas, North Dakota, Alaska, Colorado and Louisiana. The U.S. total gas count gained three to 316, Baker Hughes said. Miscellaneous rigs added one to four.U.S. gas stockpiles climbed 82 billion cubic feet last week to 2.389 trillion, according to the EIA. Supplies were 20.3 percent below the five-year average and 18.4 percent under year-earlier levels.
Natural gas for September delivery increased 8.6 cents, or 2.2 percent, to $3.962 per million British thermal units today on the Nymex, up 20 percent in the past year.”